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Pictorial: ‘Honouring the courage of all who have dared to rebuild’

July 20th, 2008

By Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

Anoma Rajakaruna shares her photos of people in black and white. Anoma has captured many expressions and many environments. Every photograph speaks differently. As a film-maker, photographer and poet ,Anoma has well captured the many moods of men, women and children around the Island. The exhibition is divided as My story, her story, his story and their stories comprising 34 photographs.

Anoma Rajakaruna’s exhibition of photographs was inaugurated on July 16th 2008 at Alliance Francaise in Colombo by the Ambassador for France in Sri Lanka and Maldives Michel Lummaux. The exhibition will remain open to the public from July 18th-24th 2008 , and the exhibition will be held at Alliance Francaise in Kandy from August 8th-14th 2008.

Anoma Rajakaruna’s “My Story”, was also displayed at the exhibition:

‘Honouring the courage of all these women, men and children who have dared to rebuild their lives in Sri Lanka’

As a child I walked down the main street of my home town Panadura,
In Southern Sri Lanka, with my mother.

We walked the familiar route doing so many things together,

Going to the railway station to catch a train, going to the fisheries harbour to buy fish,
Going to the weekly fair to get seasonal fruits,
Going to the beach on Sundays to make sand castles,
Going to the library to return a book,
Going shopping to buy a new pair of shoes or
Going to the temple at the end of the street to meet a Buddhist monk, who is a scholar.

On these walks we would drop in at the corner shop or the adjoining pharmacy to say hello to some of our friends.

I remember, Uncle Joe from the pharmacy and a few others from the nearby shops with whom we communicated in a mixture of languages: Sinhalese, a little bit of Tamil and English.
We belonged to different ethnic groups and spoke different languages.

Yet we were friends.

Then a day dawned in July 1983, which changed this familiar routine and landscape completely.
I was in school.

The Hindu temple across the road went up in flames.

Thereafter every building owned by a Tamil in town was caught up in black smoke and red flames.

My teenage self was surrounded by smoke, flames, charred door frames and lifeless half burnt houses.

Days, weeks, months and years passed thereafter.

There was no trace of Uncle Joe and his friends.

The landscape of main street in Panadura had changed.

I grew up.

I met new friends. They were Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and Malays.

I started traveling. I went to places away from home all across Sri Lanka.

One day, I met a woman in Polonnaruwa who lost all her seven sons.

Two years after that, I met a sculptor in Nikaweratiya. He sculptured statues of Buddha.

I met a woman in Madhu who lost the place she called home 16 times and now lives out of suitcase.

I met people who didn’t have a place called home.

I met people who didn’t like to talk about their original homes because it brought back sad memories.

I met children who were born in temporary shelters.

Some of them have lived in such “temporary” places for a very long time.

Most of them were Tamils.

I have listened to their stories and to many other similar stories.

I have documented their lives during the last 17 years.

It’s 25 years after July 1983.

It’s time for me to share their stores with you.

I never met Uncle Joe again.

“July: Life after 25 years” is my search for him and others who were swept away from their homes and families into strange and often threatening and terrifying new environments and social contexts.

It is also my way of honouring the courage of all these women, men and children who have dared to rebuild their lives in Sri Lanka.

The Ambassador for France in Sri Lanka and Maldives Michel Lummaux naugurates the exhibition

Sunila Abeysekera lighting the oil lamp

Anoma Rajakaruna lights the oil lamp alongwith Iyammah

25 oil lamps were lit by the special invitees to commemorate the Black July

People from all walks of life gathered to witness the moments of the suffering of people around the country.

Professor Chithra Maunaguru taking a closer look at their story

There will be no school next month.
It’s monsoon time soon.
“What is a class room?” they asked me
You mean there are walls and roofs even in school?

Puthumurippu Vigneswara College, Kilinochchi

Ines Lummaux, wife of the Ambassador for France in Sri Lanka and Maldives having a closer look at their story

She lost a place she called home 16 times. She lost most of her belonging in transition. Now everything she calls her own fit in a suitcase. She doesn’t want to lose anything that is inside that. So she keeps the key to her suitcase close to her body all the time.

Madhu

She was seventy years old, when I met her for the first time in 1997.
She lives with her husband in a small mud hut.
She is waiting…..
Sitting near a small window, looking out into the endless dry zone landscape.
She waits for her sons to return home.
All seven of the, who disappeared into the fire and smoke that started in July 1983.

Polonnaruwa

He was a writer.
All his writing became a pile of ashes in a few hours in July 1983.
He ran away to save his life.
Years passed, but he never write again.
Instead, he prayed in front of his Hindu Gods and started sculpting.
I met him nine years ago.
He sculpts Buddha statues.
Statutes of many sizes to fill the empty shrine rooms in poor Buddhist temples.

Nilaweratiya

No jewelry to pawn.
No guarantors for a bank loan.
So how can they afford cattle?
They take the place of the cattle, digging a well.
So that tomorrow their children will have water to drink.

Punnainneravi

No jewelry to pawn.
No guarantors for a bank loan.
So how can they afford cattle?
They take the place of the cattle, digging a well.
So that tomorrow their children will have water to drink.

Punnainneravi

She had to pawn the piece of jewelry that had survived nearly 17 years in displacement to get a pair of cattle to run the mill.
They have plenty of sesame this season.
It will make a lot of oil, but it will not be enough to redeem her 22 k gold “Thali”, her marriage necklace.

Dharmapuram

A new day is dawning.
It’s time to dig out a few coconut husks before tide rises.
She buries coconut husks to dig them up later and make coir.
She uses the coir to make brooms, the only skill she learnt in temporary shelters.

Alampil

Mothers in front of the Human Rights Commission in Jaffna

The exhibition has drawn a large number of people from all communities

It’s difficult to survive in a fishing community, when ther’s no proper price for the catch.
a kiol of fish can be sold for as little as thirty rupees at times.
The sea cucmber is a far better catch.
So, her husband has taken a risk.
He dives deep for sea cucmber without proper gear.
She dries his catch and lives in uncertainty until he returns.

Valaippadu

He was born in a house without doors.
His parents survived.
Yet, will he be able to survive too?
Unexploded landmines are everywhere.
A fishing net prevents him from wandering out whenever his mother goes out to fetch water or firewood.

Valaippadu

She has stopped counting the number of times she has had to move house.
Yet, she remembers the first time she lost the place called home.
It was in 1983.

Adampan

South or North, the loss of a child is the worst loss for a mother.
She didn’t cry the day she lost her roof.
Yet, she cries the day she lost her daughter

Their mother talks about beautiful sunsets she has seen as a child.
but, all they have seen is sun rises.
Their father talks about his home and beautiful Uswetakeiyawa beach on the West coast.
But, all their lives these children have played only on the East coast.
“Will we be able to go for a swim in the Western sea one day soon?
They asked me.

Trincomalee

Trincomalee

As children, they used to do everything together.
Even as adults, they did a few things together.
Then, they got married.
One husband survived 1983 and the other did not.
These two sisters wait together in the hope that one day they might be able to return to their ancestral home in the South.

Ottupulam

She was a farmer from Welimada, where her family cultivated cabbages, carrots and potatoes.
They ran for their lives leaving everything behind in 1983.
Five to six times she changed from one temporary shelter to another.
I met her and eight other female labourers when they were harvesting onions for a pittance of a daily wage.

Moongilaru

Moongilaru

Anoma’s childhood memories are warm and cherishing

She was three years old when she lost her first home.
She was twenty three when she lost her leg.
She married, had two children.
she had many hopes.
“For now, all I hope for is a land without mines for my children”.

Udayanagar

Udayanagar

She lost her parents during the riots.
She got married to a relative in Jaffna and was three months pregnant when she was raped.
She lost the child as well as her memory.
She talks to herself and talks to Durga.
She was going to name a baby Durga if she was a girl.

“Here they come again son.
run, run….. run faster
Ha…..ha…..ha…..
Why are you looking at me, look at them”.
I met her at a shelter for the mentally and physically handicapped.

“It’s time for me to share their stories with you. This is my way of honouring these people,” she says Anoma Rajakaruna

One girl was caught up in a landmine.
The other is trying to unearth the mines for a living.

Paranthan and Mankulam

She had to attend quite a few schools and miss many schools terms before she could pass her O/L exam.
Then her mother managed to save some money to send her to typing and shorthand classes in Jaffna.
She found a job as a typist and worked for a few years.
She saved money, and earned her own dowry.
Her husband was very charming man until a mine blast on her face when she was weeding her own backyard.
Her mother struggles to earn enough to feed her and her small child.
I met them in 2002.

Kilinochchi

“My Story”, display at the exhibition

“My Story”

Each photograph tells a bigger story behind the people

After the horror, the hope continues
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Email:dushi.pillai@gmail.com

Entry Filed under: Events, Peace & War